My Computer is slow. Why?

One of the best things about a new computer is the speed. It boots fast, opens programs like a dream and generally doesn't leave you checking your watch.

Nobody likes using a sluggish computer. Instead of banging your head against your monitor, here are 10 easy ways to speed up your Mac or PC.

Of course, the longer you use a computer, the slower it gets. It's tempting to buy a new computer or call a professional, but I wouldn't just yet. You can get back most of the speed with a few free methods. 

Speed up your startup

The most annoying computer slowdown for most people is startup. Even new computers can take a few minutes to start. After years of use, it can seem like hours.

Your computer spends much of that time starting third-party programs. Security software, printer software and driver updaters are just a few examples. The frustrating part is that many of these don't need to run at startup.

Autoruns is a freebie that can help reduce the load. It finds and disables unneeded programs so they don't slow you down. But it won't stop important startup processes, like security software.

Basic computer troubleshooting techniques

Startup Delayer is a good program if you want more control. You can tell what programs to start when. That way, they're not fighting for system resources.

If you have a Windows 7 or 8 computer, you might invest in a solid-state hard drive (SSD). These are much faster than conventional hard drives. It can bring your startup times to well under a minute.

1. RESTART YOUR COMPUTER.

Before you roll your eyes, consider there's a reason why this is the first thing your colleagues in the I.T. department tell you to do when you're having trouble. Certain applications experience “memory leaking”, the effects of which, after a while, add up to consume valuable resources (and thus, diminish performance). Rebooting gives your machine a fresh start and clears up any memory leakage-issues.

2. CLEAN UP YOUR HARD DRIVE.

Fresh off a reboot but still having problems? One of the best ways to make your Mac or PC run faster is to delete old files. While this process is easier said than done, there are a number of tools you can employ—that don't involve you manually clicking through thousands of files.Magican for Mac or CCleaner for PC are both programs that can help expedite what would otherwise be a pretty painful process.

One area you may not have considered tidying: your system’s language settings. Most computers come pre-installed with various alternative languages that you probably don't use, and yes, these too take up valuable hard drive space. Programs like Monolingual will go through and delete unnecessary language settings for you.

Daily hard drive maintenance and clean up will go a long way towards improving your computer’s speed and functionality.

3. UPDATE YOUR SOFTWARE.

Those reminder pop-ups can be annoying, but they serve an important purpose: updating your software and operating system will help everything work better. If you have a Mac, make sure you have the latest version of Mac OS X (Version 10.11 “El Capitan”) from the Mac App Store. If you're on a PC, download the latest version of Windows (Windows 10). The new versions of each operating system were designed to make older computers run more efficiently, so take advantage of the upgrade.

4. MANAGE START UP …

If booting up takes up most of your morning, then it might be a good idea to cut down on the number of apps you have loading at login. In all likelihood, there are at least a few unnecessary programs that you had no idea were running. (Even if you aren't actively using them, they can still eat up memory and other important resources.)

For Mac users, go to “System Preferences,” then “Users & Groups,” and click on your username. Under the “Login Items” tab, you can check only the applications that you absolutely need when you start up.

If you're on a PC, from the “Start” menu, type in “msconfig” in the search bar. Click the “Startup” tab and you'll see the list of all the programs that boot up every time you start your system. Use this list to select only the items you absolutely need.

5. Cloe BACKGROUND APPS IN GENERAL.

Too much multitasking can hinder your system’s performance, and lead to you not accomplishing any tasks at all. Curious as to which programs are causing the most problems? If you're on a Mac, open your "Utilities" folder under "Applications." Find the "Activity Monitor" for a detailed list of programs currently running. Click the "Memory" tab to find out which apps are taking up most of your RAM. If those apps aren't necessary for whatever it is you're currently working on, close 'em. 

If you're on a PC, go to the “Start” menu and search for your “Task Manager.” This is where you'll find a list of all the programs open on your machine. The “Processes” tab will help you figure out which unnecessary programs are taking up the most RAM. Then kill accordingly!

How to Solve (your computer is low on memory)

6. UNINSTALL BLOATWARE.

Once you've figured out what programs you want at startup, think more broadly about the programs you actually use. Our computers come pre-loaded with items that end up sitting on our hard drives, taking up valuable space. Unfortunately, many people don’t bother trying to uninstall them because they think they need these apps to in order for their machines to run properly.

There are tools out there that can help you decide what is necessary and what you can uninstall to make your machine work better, such as decrap.org for PC and AppCleaner for Mac. If you're willing to take more drastic measures, try reinstalling Windows or Mac OS X. Important note: This process will wipe your data, but will give you a fresh start—without bloatware. Please, please, please back up all of your data, documents, pictures, and videos before you reinstall.

7. CHECK FOR SPYWARE AND VIRUSES.

Prevention is key, but the popup overload associated with third party software can be almost as annoying as the malware it's trying to prevent. Windows 8 and 10 come pre-installed with antivirus software, and now this program, Microsoft Security Essentials is compatible for Windows 7 and Vista users.

Mac OS X already has antivirus software installed, but you should still enable “Stealth Mode” in “System Preferences” to prevent spyware. Go to “Security & Privacy” and click “Firewall Options.” At the bottom of the window, you’ll find “Stealth Mode”—make sure the option is checked.

It’s a good idea to scan for viruses and spyware once a week to keep your system runningsmoothly. Visit websites on the most up-to-date version of the browser you’re using, which nowadays can usually automatically detect if a website is malicious. Be smarter about clicking links in your email inbox. Never click a link or attachment in an email unless you can see the web address and avoid URL shortened links from unfamiliar senders.

8. KEEP YOUR SYSTEM COOL.

A computer will start to slow down if it’s overworked and overheated. To prevent this from happening, elevate your laptop on a stand or cooling pad to keep air circulating. (Avoid resting it on pillows or cushions, which obstruct air flow.) You can also install software, such as SMC Fan Control for Mac and SpeedFan for Windows—these will increase the speed of your CPU's fan to make it work faster.

In addition, you should also physically clean your system every other week. Dust, dirt, and other gunk can clog air vents and lead to performance issues. Turn off your machine and use canned compressed air or a vacuum to remove anything obstructing your fans. It’s also a good idea to clean your keyboard, mouse, trackpad, and monitor with baby wipes and cotton swabs on a weekly basis. Just remember not to get your computer wet.

9. MANAGE YOUR TABS.

The more tabs you have open in a browser, the slower everything gets. Using a tab manager browser extension, like OneTab and TabMan, can help you organize and consolidate your open tab—and greatly improve your productivity and speed. While you're at it, don't forget to clear your cache.

10. UPGRADE YOUR RAM.

If all else fails, take heart: you may not have to shell out hundreds (or thousands) of dollars for a new machine. First, try upgrading your computer's RAM (or Random Access Memory) to increase its speed. Depending on your usage patterns, it might be better to get more RAM, or it might be better to get faster RAM. So look around to see what’s best for you.

Upgrading RAM is generally easier for PC users than Mac users. If you're on a PC, you may be able to do it yourself. But if you're on a Mac, use a site like EveryMac.com and New Egg to figure out what kind of RAM you need and how much more you'll need for an upgrade. The folks at the Apple Genius Bar will be able to take it from there.

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Google AdSense Tips to Drive More Revenue

AdSense is everywhere you look; from dictionary sites, eHow websites, to your favorite makeup tutorial site—but few publishers ever go beyond the initial set up, you need some AdSense hacks to make the most of your account.

Managing an AdSense account can be challenging, though, at least in the beginning. We’ve already published several posts on how to optimize your AdSense account to increase your revenue:

1. Use Asynchronous Ad Codes

Good user experience invariably leads to higher CTRs and page speed is one of the most important metrics of UX. Google has made it possible for publishers to cut down their page load times by using an asynchronous AdSense tag.

Tip: You can do this on the My ads tab in your AdSense account.

How To Earn $100 Per Day With Google AdSense,

2. Optimize Ad Sizes for Mobile

Mobile screens are smaller and therefore a desktop ad layout simply won’t cut it for mobile devices. What you should do is set specify special ad sizes for mobile and optimize your layout (we’ll talk about more on this in detail later).

Set up some A/B tests to figure out which units work better—then use those.

3. Geo-Target Your Paid Audience

All incoming traffic is good news for a publisher. In the case of paid traffic, however, users from some countries are more valuable than others ⎯ this is your target.

Head over to your dashboard and check which countries visit your website the most. Next, refer to this list by WordStream on the Countries with the Highest CPCs.

Check your list to confirm if you have these countries in your audience, then proceed to bring in more traffic from these countries.

Tip: You can check this in Performance Reports > Countries in your AdSense account.

4. Periodically Block/Unblock Categories

Let’s get into more specific AdSense hacks—opinion is divided here so you might want to experiment and keep a close eye on results. It’s true that there are categories that have high CPCs while others have high CTRs, but combining all categories isn’t ideal, as it increases your competition in the long run.

As a default, all the “safe” categories were pre-selected by Google for your campaign. The first step on blocking unwanted categories is by simply selecting the categories with a lot of impressions but lower revenue yield.

However, this should only be temporary; make sure to recheck these categories periodically as you may want to unblock them during a certain time, such as when you need an increase in fill rate, etc..

Competition for ad placements will be lower, but this will positively affect the quality of ads and advertisers coming your way. Thus, indirectly influencing your Ad RPM positively.

5. Set Up and Optimize Custom Channels

Another one of many overlooked AdSense hacks is using Custom Channels found in your dashboard. It’s a reporting tool that lets you know what works and what doesn’t ⎯ but it’s also a great way of organizing your inventory and presenting it to advertisers.

To summarize, custom channels can help you serve the right ads to the right people, thereby increasing revenue for yourself and conversions for the advertiser. In the long run, it becomes a cycle that continues to churn out money from your website.

11 AdSense Tips And Tricks to Maximize Your Earning Potential

6. Beating Invalid Traffic and Smart Pricing

Last year, Google introduced a line item in our dashboards named Invalid Traffic—AdSense for Content. To put it simply, these are invalid clicks on your ads as Google sees it.

Invalid click activity includes any clicks or impressions that may artificially inflate an advertiser’s costs or a publisher’s earnings. Invalid activity covers intentionally fraudulent traffic as well as accidental clicks.

Invalid activity includes, but is not limited to:

• Clicks or impressions generated by publishers clicking their own live ads
• Repeated ad clicks or impressions generated by one or more users
• Publishers encouraging clicks on their ads (examples may include: any language encouraging users to click on ads, ad implementations that may cause a high volume of accidental clicks, etc.)
• Automated clicking tools or traffic sources, robots, or other deceptive software.

Of course, we know that you’re not clicking your own ads! AdSense competition is tough, though; there may be some competitors creating this negative traffic on your site. Google suggests these steps for preventing invalid activity.

On the other hand, Smart Pricing has set the balance between advertisers and publishers for more than a decade now. Smart Pricing assures advertisers that their money isn’t wasted on useless traffic. For publishers, this assures that the opportunity to get advertisers will not be threatened.

Why combine these seemingly irrelevant topics? It’s because their solutions are similar in a way that it has to be treated the same. Here are some tips to take advantage of Smart Pricing and lessen losses from Invalid Traffic:

• Build your content! Thin content with many ads on the page is a big turn off for Google, not to mention users, Deliver unique content that will help reel in users, both new and returning. This will help increase valid traffic. Smart Pricing depends on the quality of traffic you send to the advertisers. If you create content that is relevant to the ad unit you are showing, users will be more likely to click the ad without you telling them to do so.
• Social is good, but Search is better. There were some reports claiming that social traffic causes spikes in invalid traffic. It’s good to get your audience from social media, but Google knows that there are ways to hack social traffic. The best solution is to optimize your site and strive to get highly targeted traffic that is related to the ad categories you display on your site.
• Hello, it’s you. Google is open for any refutes. If you think you’ve been wrongly accused of invalid traffic, contact them here.

7. Ad Layout Optimization

Ad layout optimization involves a lot more than just switching your ad positions. One way to optimize layouts is to run A/B tests using the Experiments feature—but as the number of ad units you test increases, this is not very scalable.

This is why we created AdPushup, our algorithms help you optimize your ad layout with minimal intervention from you. But that’s not all it does, it also helps you integrate your ads seamlessly into web pages so that user experience is improved, not compromised.

Go for the Users, then the Gold

Run-of-the-mill article websites are history, the focus now is on creating platforms where ads complement content to assist every user during their customer journey.

As publishers, we are called to commit ourselves to serving the best content for our users. Prioritizing user experience over revenue is how Google wants us to drive our AdSense campaigns—and they’re probably right.

Source: http://www.adpushup.com/blog/7-google-adsense-hacks-to-drive-more-revenue/

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Skills You Will Need For A Career In Digital Marketing

Popular marketer, blogger and podcaster, Mark Schaefer, recently projected that by the year 2020, the amount of content on the Internet will grow over 600%. Think about the depth and breadth of the Internet that we know today, and then picture six of them.

Growth of this magnitude will make a digital marketer’s job role more important than ever.

Below are the different skills that will make you successful in building a career in digital marketing:

• Intellectual curiosity
• Creativity
• Analytic & data-driven metrics
• Passion
• Ability to execute

Let’s dive into these indispensable skills a bit deeper.

Related Post: http://www.undocopy.com/2016/03/list-of-important-websites-for-everyone.html

1. Intellectual Curiosity

Psychology Today describes a person with intellectual curiosity as a person that has “a deep and persistent desire to know.”

Being intellectually curious was natural to us as children, as we always looked for answers from those around us, asking the question “why.” For example, “Why is the sky blue?”, “Why do I have to eat my vegetables?”, and “Why do I have a bedtime?”

However, as we grow older we begin to hide or ignore our curiosity for fear of being mocked or ridiculed. The saying “there are no stupid questions” was born from that exact fear – and now exists to help encourage thinking and questions.

As technology, business and marketing continues to evolve, it’s important to not just learn things at a superficial level, but to truly spark your intellectual curiosity and understand the bigger picture and the “why” behind it.

In fact, one of the top 10 TED presentations of all time, How create leaders inspire action, Simon Sinek brought thoughtful questioning and understanding back to mainstream conversations. The framework that Sinek discusses is based on understanding the “why, how, what” behind everything. By having this level of understanding of the business, processes and tactical strategies – marketers are able to understand the big and little picture of their efforts.

Takeaway: Understanding the big-picture gives you a holistic view of your efforts and allows you to think critically about them, making you a stronger more adaptable marketer in this always-changing landscape. To be successful, it’s important to not only understand what you’re doing as a marketer, but WHY you’re doing it.

2. Creativity

As Unilever’s CMO Keith Weed once said “In the last five years, the marketing industry has changed more than in the last 25. It’s created chaos. What’s changed so radically is we’re no longer just competing with the geniuses that created content in places like Hollywood, we’re competing against everyone.”

With so much more competition online than ever before, creativity will what will differentiate the great digital marketers from the mediocre.

Marketers will need creativity to be able to find unique ways to cut through the always-increasing information clutter, but also they’ll need it to be able to creatively solve business problems.

The good news? If you weren’t born creative, it doesn’t matter. Leading experts on innovation and creativity, Tom and David Kelly, wrote a whole book dispelling the myth that original work should be left for “the creatives.” They offer tips and suggestions on how anyone can cultivate their creative side. Get an idea of their process by watching their 60-minute video on their Creative Confidence website.

Takeaway: Cultivating your creative side will help you to create memorable marketing campaigns, and is also a valuable skill for problem solving.

3. Analytic & Data Driven Metrics

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” – John Wanamaker. Fortunately for the marketers of today, this quote no longer holds much truth.

There has been a fundamental shift in the way that consumers buy. More and more people are turning to the Internet to research potential purchases. And fortunately for marketers, with the right software, all of this buying behavior on your website is now trackable.

This makes data a big, big part of a marketers job. Data is a marketer’s golden ticket as it’s what can help people to make meaningful marketing decisions.

A great example of this comes from the co-founder of Kissmetrics and Crazy Egg, Neil Patel. He recently wrote on his blog how a A/B testing one phrase ended up increasing website sign-ups by 40%.

Takeaway: A successful marketer now needs the ability to find ways to gather data, organize it and then make intelligent marketing decisions off of it.

4. Passion

Although this trait is not specific to a career in digital marketing, it’s still important to address.

Passion is essential for everything in life. Passion for what you do makes it okay, or dare I say it exiting, to stay late on a Tuesday. Passion for what you do is what makes you wake up in the morning happy to come in to the office. Passion for what you do is what makes you feel fulfilled and complete as a person.

Leading author and speaker on creativity and motivation, Daniel Pink, uncovered that people are motivated to work hard and be successful because of three things: autonomy (our desire to direct our own lives), mastery (our urge to become better at things) and purpose (the feeling that we’re making a difference in the world).

Our passion for an industry, a person or a cause is what gives us the drive we need to be happy and successful.

In the words of Steve Jobs:

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what at you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And just like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

Takeaway: Your passion for what you do will dictate your success and your happiness as a digital marketer. Without passion, you will never be able to fulfill your full potential.

5. Ability To Execute

With all of the free articles, podcasts, videos, SlideShare presentations, MOOCs and learning resources online, it’s all too easy to get lost in the information consumption-abyss. After all, it is actually much easier to learn about something, than to actually do something.

Marketers need to develop time management and productive work habits. With there being so many different things to do at all hours of the day (blog, publish on social media, monitor on social media, optimize website pages, create content offers, create conversion paths, create lead nurturing campaigns, etc.), you will need to learn how to make the most of their time and execute their marketing with excellence.

Takeaway: To be successful in today’s digital landscape, you will have to balance consumption and execution more than ever. If you have problems with this, consider trying the Pomodoro Technique popularized by many tech entrepreneurs.

Bonus:

Knowledge and experience aren’t necessarily “skills” but they’re now necessary in the competitive job market. Below are the two categories with the suggestions on how to stand out against the rest:

6. Current Digital Marketing Knowledge

With so many free educational resources available nowadays, you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t take advantage of those resources. Plus, we’ve already established that digital marketing is a forever changing industry, keeping up with changes and new trends will be a crucial component to being successful.

Here are the top free, and reputable online resources for learning digital marketing skills:

• Inbound Marketing Certification.  Hosted by HubSpot, this free digital marketing resource is a big-picture overview of the fundamentals of the different digital marketing puzzle pieces. Get Inbound Certified for free.
• Social Media: My new Social Creators Academy shows you how to get creative with visual storytelling.
• Google Analytics and Adwords: If you want to learn how to use the Google platform, you can gain the Google Analytics Individual Qualification Certification or Google Adwords Certification by joining Google Partners.

Takeaway: Never stop learning. Careers in digital marketing are not static. You have to learn and experiment everyday to keep your digital marketing knowledge current.

7. Learning By Doing: Getting Experience

With all of the free educational resources available and the accessibility of the Internet, you don’t need an internship or a job to gain experience anymore.

It’s very inexpensive to buy a domain and get started creating a website. By taking these steps, you can gain experience and insight into how the digital marketing industry works.

At HubSpot, we’ll often encourage job applicants that are newcomers to the industry to gain experience by trying digital marketing on their own, as it’s a great way to test out an industry before diving in, headfirst.

And this just makes sense, right? Would you rather hire someone who has read a few articles on driving a car, or the person who has actually gotten behind the wheel and driven the car? Practical experience and the results consistently generated mean everything in digital marketing.

Buy a domain on a topic that you love, or buy one with your name as a way to personal brand yourself, and begin applying your learnings. Take the time to create content, promote it through different distribution channels, try something new and creative, and analyze your efforts so you can always be improving.

Takeaway: Take all of your learning and put it to use. The best way learn digital marketing skills is by doing. There is no better way to prepare yourself for a career in digital marketing than by diving in and getting your hands dirty.

The future of digital marketing is certainly not set in stone. In just the last 5 years the entire digital marketing industry has shifted away from automated tactics to much more creative method of engaging and building audiences. Things are changing at an exponential rate and the successful digital marketers of today understand this and are preparing for the future.

Successful digital marketers are not simply maintaining the status quo of industry trends, they’re constantly creating and adapting to the future of marketing. This rate of change is only going to speed up, so to build a career in digital marketing you need to embrace change and always be learning, experimenting and looking for answers in the data.

Orginal Post: https://www.diygenius.com/7-skills-you-will-need-for-a-career-in-digital-marketing/

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Self-Education Resources For Lifelong Learners

Self-education and the embrace of lifelong learning is becoming a critical mindset to navigate our rapidly changing world. Lifelong learning can be a catalyst for earning more money in your career and it can be a gateway to self-employment. Fortunately, the Internet has made it easier than ever to find the right resources to spark your curiosity and learn what you need to know.

In this post, You will find online courses and tools to master new skills, learn languages, find classic books, broaden your mind and interact with other lifelong learners.

Related Post":

Online Courses:

Take online courses from the world’s best Universities. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide video lectures, structured deadlines and interactive learning communities.

Coursera – The largest course platform for free MOOCs . Founded by two former Stanford University professors.

Udacity – Founded by Sebastian Thrun, the creator of the artificial intelligence system behind Google’s self-driving cars. Udacity’s focus is on free MOOCs for improving your knowledge of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines.

EdX – A free MOOC platform developed through a partnership between Harvard, MIT and Berkeley. Expanding rapidly.

MIT Open Courseware – This ambitious project launched over a decade ago by MIT makes the course materials used in virtually all of MIT’s courses available on the web for free.

Khan Academy – Salman Khan’s pioneering online academy where you can learn just about any academic subject online for free.

Saylor – Started by serial entrepreneurial and education futurist Michael Saylor. The Saylor Foundation is a non-profit that provides a free University education that includes written exams and University credits for most of your work.

iTunes U – Apple’s iTunes University initiative makes it easy to take courses on your iPhone or iPad wherever you go.

Canvas Network – An open learning network with a growing collection of free online courses. Sign up early for courses, they fill up fast.

FutureLearn – The United Kingdom’s MOOC initiative has over 40 leading Universities offering free online courses.

Udemy – The iTunes of learning new digital skills and training for your career.

Lectures and Video Learning Websites:

Get inspired by watching short lectures by the world’s leading thinkers, entrepreneurs and creators.

TED – With its slogan “Ideas Worth Spreading” the TED Conference (stands for Technology, Education, Design)  features world’s leading academics, teachers and innovators in easily digestible 18-minute lectures.

YouTube EDU – Google’s YouTube Education channel. Lots of great educational content, lectures and conference talks conveniently organized.

Do Lectures – Inspiring talks from people who have set out to change the world.

Solve For X – A forum established by Google to amplify technology-based solutions to radically challenge the world’s problems.

Big Think – Short videos with important contemporary thinkers, entrepreneurs and scientists talking about their expertise.

Fora.TV – Constantly expanding collection of videos from the world’s biggest conferences and events.

@Google Talks – Innovator thinkers and doers visit Googleplex to give inspiring talks that are posted freely online by Google.

RSA Animate – Engaging, hand-drawn videos that illustrate important issues in the world today.

Creative Live – Live workshops taught by world class experts. Free if you mark the talks on your schedule and watch the live streams.

Reddit Lectures – A busy Reddit community for the latest and greatest video lectures.

Watch Streaming Documentaries:

Watching documentaries is a great way to relax and learn new things.

My Mind Expanding Documentaries List – A collection of thought-provoking documentaries that I have collected from across the web.

My New 2016 Documentaries List – Watch the best new documentaries of 2016 from Vice, PBS Frontline and other streaming websites.

My Education Documentaries List – Watch the best documentaries on education, creativity and technology.

My Social Media Documentaries List – Watch documentaries about the rise of the new social media influencers.

Digital Skills Portfolios:

With so much informal learning now happening online, your credentials are less important than what you can do with your knowledge. These platforms are developing alternative forms of accreditation that are based on your practical skills and accomplishments.

Degreed – Trying to jailbreak the college degree by helping your build a digital, lifelong diploma.

Pathbrite – Collect, organize and share a lifetime of learning and achievement.

Smarterer – Benchmark your skills and track what you’ve learned through online skill tests.

Mozilla’s Open Badges – Get recognition for your skills and achievement by earning digital badges.

LinkedIn – The professional social networking website has become the new social resume.
 

Open Educational Resources:

Access high-quality education textbooks, get your burning questions answered and explore a world of free digital self-education resources.

Boundless – Disrupting the big textbook publishers by offering textbooks online, for free.

Textbook Revolution – Free, open source textbooks if that’s how you want to learn.

Open Textbooks – Browse college textbooks by subject, which are made freely available online.

Scribd – Amazing library of digital documents on every imaginable subject.

Slideshare – Learn new things and find information broken down to the essential bits in this incredible library of digital presentations.

Creative Commons Education – An open source movement to 

make educational content freely available online.

Connexions – A global knowledge sharing community that breaks information down into small, easily-digestible chunks.

Open Study – Ask. Answer. Understand. Get real-time study help in the world’s largest study group.

Quora – My favorite question and answer community. Find expert and amateur advice on every imaginable topic.

iTunes Podcasts – I highly recommend browsing the Podcasts on iTunes. So many incredible free audio shows at your fingertips.

DIY Education Communities:

Online communities where you can meet other lifelong learners and build a mastermind community for your own self-education endeavors.

Uncollege – The Uncollege movement challenges the notion that you need to go to University to get an education. They provide inspiration and resources for alternative educational paths.

Zero Tuition College – A community of self-directed learners that provide mentoring to each other.

The Public School – A school with no curriculum. A framework for self-education and auto-didactic activities, operating under the assumption that everything is in everything.

Meetup – Find interesting meetups and meet new people in your local area. Or start your own meetup, join a mastermind group or create a new learning community.

P2PU – An open education community for lifelong learning leveraging open source education materials, collaborative learning and an evolving system that gives learners recognition for their achievements.
 
Liberal Arts: Study The Classics

A great way to get inside the minds of civilization greatest thinkers is to read their books.

The Liberal Arts 4-Year Reading List – Study the essential classical books and educate yourself in the liberal arts by reading a book every 2 weeks for 4 years (or pick the ones that interest you the most). The first year covers Greek authors; the second year is from Roman, medieval, Renaissance periods; the third year is the books of the 17th and 18th centuries and the fourth year covers books from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Classics – Free Ebooks Reading List – A collection of classic ebooks that you can read online for free.

A Lifetime’s Reading: The World’s 500 Greatest Books – Compiled by the prolific Philip Ward,  a librarian, scholar, editor and author of more than 50 books.

Great Books of the Western World – 161 books essential books of the West on Wikipedia.

The Western World’s 500 Greatest Books – An excellent collection of over 500 books from Western civilization with links to where you can read them on Project Gutenberg.

Great Literature of the Eastern World – I couldn’t find an equivalent book of Eastern books online but this book apparently covers the major works of prose, poetry and drama from China, India, Japan, Korea and the Middle East.

Classic Reader – Search and access an online library of 3800+ mostly classic books.

Planet Ebook – Read 80+ free classic books for free on your computer or mobile device.

Project Gutenberg – Read over 42,000 free books in the massive Project Gutenberg archive. Download many of them directly to Kindle or other mobile reading formats. Amazing resource for self-education.

Find and Share Amazing Books:

Discover new books that you can read online or find at your local library and connect with other people reading similar books.

1. Good Reads – A massive social network (recently acquired by Amazon) for discovering new books and sharing the books you love.
2. Book Yards – 1000s of more free ebooks easily browsable by author or category.
3. Read Print Library – A social network “where books and people meet”.
4. Library Thing – A community of 1.6 million book lovers. Meet and share stories with people who have similar taste or are reading the same books you are.

Self-Knowledge and Wisdom:

Educating the mind without awakening the heart is no education at all. Explore religious texts to develop your self-knowledge and awaken to the spiritual dimension that gives life meaning and richness.

1. Internet Sacred Text Archive – Read the sacred texts from the world’s major religions and other less institutionalized religions like Sufism, Gnosticism, Tantrism, Taoism, Shamanism and more.
2. Sacred Books of the East – Browse and read public domain copies of 50 of the most important books of Eastern philosophy and civilization.
3. Virtual Religious Index – Extensive link collection maintained by Rutgers University of websites with informative religious content. Categorized by religion as well as ancient religions, archaeology and philosophy.
4. Meta Religion – Internet project for educating people in a multidisciplinary view of the religion, spiritual and the world of esoteric phenomena.
5. Sacred Destinations – Places of great spiritual power around the world that you can explore and plan to visit one day.
6. Religion Facts – Get your religious questions answered on this site.
7. Spiritual Reality Power of Meditation – Freedom from compulsory thoughts is the gateway to wisdom and a true understanding of who you are. This YouTube video is one of the best introductions to meditation.

Education Depositories and Tools:

Some great digital tools for furthering your self-education and lifelong learning.

1. Learnist – Browse and create your own online learning collections. Lots of great content to enjoy.
2. MentorMob – Discover and create your own learning playlists. Similar to Learnist.
3. Kibin – A proof-reading and editing community that can help you improve your writing. You can either pay or proof-read other people’s work and get credit for it.
4. Library of Congress – The de facto national library of the United States of America and the largest library in the world. Most of it is accessible online.
5. BBC Learning – Huge collection of learning resources from the BBC. Find online courses, video clips and educational games.

Learn New Languages:

The best way to learn is to travel. To travel well, you’re probably going to want to learn the local languages. Here are the best ways to do it fast.

1. Duolingo – My favorite free language learning website. Totally gamified learning process where you can learn for free by translating content while you learn. Their iPhone app is great too.
2. Memrise – Innovative memorizing system for learning new languages.
3. Live Mocha – The largest language learning community online that I know of.
4. BBC Languages – Great language learning resources freely provided by the BBC.

Self-Education Toolbox:

Here are my favorite tools for managing my own self-education and creative projects. I prefer digital tools with seamless cloud-based syncing across computers and mobile devices.

1. Evernote – Outsource part of your brain to Evernote. Much more than just notes synced across all your devices. You can also take photos of pages or items and search them later with full text recognition, record voice memos, organized your research and collaborate seamlessly with colleagues on projects.
2. Feedly –  The best Google Reader alternative for grabbing RSS feeds from your favorite blogs. Syncs with iPhone, iPad and Android too.
3. Flipboard – Find interactive content from the web’s best sources and curate your own digital magazine of the websites, articles, videos and photos that inspire you.
4. Pocket – Save articles and information on websites you like to read later online or offline on your laptop, smartphone or tablet.
5. Diigo – My favorite tool for organizing bookmarks by keyword, highlighting text online and posting sticky notes to read important things later. Accessible from any computer or mobile device.
6. Trello – An essential tool for keeping yourself organized and accountable with to-do lists, workflow and flexible deadlines. Also excellent for collaborative learning projects. In one glance, know what’s being worked on, who’s working on it and keep up-to-date with your colleagues progress with private Twitter-like social project stream. Great mobile support on iPhone, iPad and Android.
7. Google Apps – Free web-based email with Gmail, calendar to set reminders and schedule your life, and documents for collaborative study anytime, anywhere.
8. Toggl – Easy time and task tracking for your creative projects. Get an instant breakdown of which projects are consuming your time. For freelance business projects, Harvest has better invoicing and tax features.
9. MindMeister – Create mind maps for brainstorming and organizing where you creative ideas lead you.
10. Wunderlist – Create and share to-do lists and easily set reminders from your iPhone, iPad or Android device.

Self-Discipline Tools:

Self-discipline rarely comes naturally so these digital tools are great for setting goals, accountability and tracking progress.

1. Cojourneo – A new app in beta-testing for setting goals and achieving them.
2. 43Things – A goal setting community with 3 million members.
3. Day Zero Project – Make lists of your goals and turn them into a challenge.
4. Everest App – An iPhone app that helps you achieve personal goals.
5. RescueTime – An excellent time management and productivity tool. See where you’re wasting your time and break the habit.
6. Pomodoro App – My favorite productivity tool. The scientifically-proven Pomodoro method breaks down your work or study projects into easily managed 25 minute chunks with 5 minute breaks in-between.

Recommended Reading:

All education is self-education, a good teacher can only point the way, we have to do the work. Interesting perspectives on how education is being revolutionized by the Internet and information abundance.

1. Weapons of Mass Instruction (John Taylor Gatto)
2. Hacking Your Education: Ditch the Lectures, Save Tens of Thousands, and Learn More Than Your Peers Ever Will (Dale J. Stephens)
3. The Education of Millionaires: It’s Not What You Think and It’s Not Too Late (Michael Ellsberg)
4. The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined (Salman Khan)
5. Better Than College: How to Build a Successful Life Without a Four-Year Degree (Blake Boles)
6. DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education (Anya Kamenetz)
7. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (John Taylor Gatto)
8. Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better (John Holt)
9. The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World (Chris Guillebeau)
10. Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (Peter Gray)
11. The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (Neil Postman)
12. Stop Stealing Dreams: What Is School For? (Seth Godin)
13. Deschooling Society (Ivan Illich)
14. Teaching As A Subversive Activity (Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner)
15. Education and the Significance of Life (Jiddhu Krishnamurti)

Critical Thinking Resources:

If you’re going to follow the path of self-education these resources can help you sharpen your critical thinking skills.

1. Think Again: How to Reason and Argue – Improve your ability to assess arguments other people make and learn how to construct good arguments of your own.
2. Critical Thinking in Global Challenges – Interesting course that teaches you how to assess information and develop reasoned arguments in the context of global challenges facing our world.
3. Trivium Education – An excellent website dedicated to the Trivium, an ancient system of grammar, logic and rhetoric that provides the intellectual tools to establish clarity and consistency of personal thought. It used to be the cornerstone of a classical liberal education through the study of essential 7 liberal arts and sciences but it is now largely absent from schools.
4. Trivium Resources – An excellent collection of Trivium resources from online free thinking community Tragedy and Hope. I recommend starting with the 5-page summary of the Trivium method for critical thinking and creative problem solving.
5. The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric – The classic book by Sister Miriam Joseph that teaches the Trivium and how it can be used to improve your faculties of intelligence and reasoning.

More Lifelong Learning Resources:

1. Meta-Learning – 70 pages of the Meta-Learning section of Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Chef book.
2. Google World Wonders Project – Google brings to life the wonders of the modern and ancient world.
3. Google Art Project – Explore collections from art museums around the world with thousands of artworks photographed in extremely high resolution.
4. National Geographic Education – Cultivate your knowledge of the world’s geography and countries.

A big thank you goes to Opensource.com for the image at the top.

Original Post from: https://www.diygenius.com/100-self-education-resources-for-lifelong-learners/

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